Office of Medical Education

Center for Advanced Learning & Simulation

The Center for Advanced Learning and Simulation (CALS), located on the LSU Health New Orleans campus, offers a state-of-the-art learning atmosphere. CALS features a broad range of clinical simulation facilities, offering healthcare Providers and students the opportunity to learn and train in a virtual hospital setting located in the heart of New Orleans. The CALS educational platform delivers a threefold training configuration with unique standardized patient training, high to low fidelity patient simulators, and fresh-tissue laboratories. This novel learning space includes AV/IT capture technology, a wide range of clinical settings (inpatient and outpatient) and conditions that are simulated in full scale. This space offers an exceptional real-world training atmosphere that can support multidisciplinary, and inter-professional education for healthcare Providers practicing all disciplines. This training environment is designed for a broad range of learners, spanning students to professionals and is an ideal supplemental setting for those participants engaged in national meetings hosted in New Orleans. The educational space and training layout can support local, regional and national conferences, in addition to industry sponsored training for advanced technology, new techniques, and advanced procedures.

The Center for Advanced Learning and Simulation houses multiple simulation suites, 16 standardized patient exam rooms, state of the art audio-visual technology, and an extraordinary 16-station fresh-tissue laboratory (cadaveric). The space is designed for training of participants, championing active learning principles, competency-based training, and hands-on application of new knowledge. This style of training promotes explicit opportunities for reflective and deliberate practice with video feedback. CALS is supported by faculty/staff who have expertise in teaching/learning effectiveness, curriculum and instructional design, standards of best practice, program evaluation, and performance-based assessment. CALS is also a technological laboratory for scholarly work in teaching, learning assessment that welcomes partnership with other healthcare institutions, medical educators and industry.

History

The Center for Advanced Learning and Education site has a rich medical history and legacy that began as a private, faith based hospital, Hotel Dieu and transitioned into an Interim LSU Hospital (ILH). 

In the years following Hurricane Katrina, the Interim LSU Hospital served as the primary LSU Health Hospital in New Orleans. ILH fulfilled this role until the opening of the University Medical Center in 2015. ILH was then transformed into a state-of-the-art medical training facility, and centerpiece for the LSU Health campus in New Orleans.

In December 2023, LSU President William F. Tate IV, the Louisiana State University Board of Supervisors, and New Orleans City Councilmember Eugene Green joined LSU Health Sciences Center Interim Chancellor Dr. Steve Nelson to formally open the new Center for Advanced Learning & Simulation.